Author Connection Series

Featured Poet~Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska

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On Death, without Exaggeration

It can’t take a joke,
find a star, make a bridge.
It knows nothing about weaving, mining, farming,
building ships, or baking cakes.

In our planning for tomorrow,
it has the final word,
which is always beside the point.

It can’t even get the things done
that are part of its trade:
dig a grave,
make a coffin,
clean up after itself.

Preoccupied with killing,
it does the job awkwardly,
without system or skill.
As though each of us were its first kill.

Oh, it has its triumphs,
but look at its countless defeats,
missed blows,
and repeat attempts!

Sometimes it isn’t strong enough
to swat a fly from the air.
Many are the caterpillars
that have outcrawled it.

All those bulbs, pods,
tentacles, fins, tracheae,
nuptial plumage, and winter fur
show that it has fallen behind
with its halfhearted work.

Ill will won’t help
and even our lending a hand with wars and coups d’etat
is so far not enough.

Hearts beat inside eggs.
Babies’ skeletons grow.
Seeds, hard at work, sprout their first tiny pair of leaves
and sometimes even tall trees fall away.

Whoever claims that it’s omnipotent
is himself living proof
that it’s not.

There’s no life
that couldn’t be immortal
if only for a moment.

Death
always arrives by that very moment too late.

In vain it tugs at the knob
of the invisible door.
As far as you’ve come
can’t be undone.

 

By Wislawa Szymborska
From “The People on the Bridge”, 1986
Translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh

Copyright © Wislawa Szymborska, S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh

My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity if I’m mistaken, after all.
Please, don’t be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologize for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.
I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don’t rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,
your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table’s four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don’t pay me much attention.
Dignity, please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train.
Soul, don’t take offense that I’ve only got you now and then.
My apologies to everything that I can’t be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can’t be each woman and each man.
I know I won’t be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don’t bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.

 

Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska (2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, and translator. Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature “for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wis%C5%82awa_Szymborska

 

Poets and Poetry, Writing Challenge and the Mandala

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I will admit there is a smugness among poets because we try to use our poetry to make something happen or stop happening. We hang onto that thread of belief that what we wrote will shorten a nightmare, maybe even save a life. We find it unimaginable to not try with our writing.

There are definitely some bad poems out there but for every bad poem, there is the one intellectual poem that will strike a nerve. As an author on more than one occasion, a poem I’ve written has surprised me with the end result being different than where I began.

This particular poem has engaged different readers in ways I didn’t anticipate. From how did you know how alone I feel, or I’ve been there or are you okay?

Undesired

I lie

withered beside

the road like

a broken little bird

to confused to fly.

My neglected state

is apparent

even to the most

oblivious of

the oblivious.

Anger and frustration

sustain me

initially

but even that

energy fades

leaving a pitiful wisp

of what I once

was.

Now, a memory

shuffled among

many, I’ve

lost value

over time

until all

that is left

of me is

dust.©

The writing challenge had a slight bump in the road, Monday, and Tuesday no matter what I began writing ended up torn into pieces in frustration. My poor pencil snapped at one point because I was pushing so hard into the pad. Course, having my migraine spike that the control meds didn’t take the edge off didn’t help. I decided to sleep,  read some and work on the mandala until the Botox injections finally kicked in and the migraine from hades dissipated. It’s been three days since the injections and I am still struggling but at least today when I sat down to write I wrote something I liked.

Marcus sent me back my critique on Death and I and unfortunately, his commentary was the same as Vic’s that with all the time I’ve been spending trying to emulate what other authors in our local writing group do I lost my own voice in the process. So today, I went back to the table with my beloved pencil and began again line by line.

Funny thing before I knew it three hours had flown by and a whole pot of coffee drank. Oops, sorry, Vic.  (I’m a serious coffee drinker unlike my husband, he doesn’t usually drink more than one cup whereas I am usually a pot and more. I sleep like a baby every night regardless what time I indulge.) For this week, Theresa, Ronel, Tami I have almost 5 hours accomplished, although 2 I really feel were unproductive.

I did get some blog reading done. I spent some time with usathroughtyoureyeswith Audrey, Tom, and Emma (their dog). I also tried finger crocheting without much success, Yolanda. I did enjoy catching up with your crochet posts. The sweater is gorgeous but she (Yolanda) is frustrated with the sleeves. My only crochet clothing projects were vests for my children when they were younger. I do hats and scarves quite often because I love the look of Tunisian stitches. I’ve avoided shirts because of the sleeves and the way they drape or don’t drape as she discovered. Misstalkaholic had an interesting post about the Wagah border I enjoyed in addition to her examples of baggy shirts and wearing options. I’m guilty of liking loose baggy shirts untucked and just hanging there but then I’m 61 years old and comfort matters immensely to me. Tami is trying out bloglovin. I wish you lots of luck Tami.  I blog on Writing.com, I don’t have time to commit to another site beyond here and there. I did see oceanoriginals is looking for pattern testers. I briefly contemplated that and decided not to stretch myself any thinner than I already am.

We’re on Airbnb now, trying to earn some much-needed money to finish the renovations in this stone fortress so I really need to stay on top of the house cleaning and not let my furballs get to out of hand.

Mandala update:

I’m on round 66, the most challenging row thus far I have encountered. The directions are a bit complicated and working with two yarns at once have definitely slowed my progress. I’m working with baby blue and royal blue in this section which is Part 10. The designer did note there are only two colors in this part.

Round 64 and 65 were a snap unlike 66. I have taken it apart now 3 times because I messed up the popcorn spacing and the changing of colors which shows big time if you don’t have it as directed. It didn’t help either that Purryl, our oldest tabby, decided to chew the yarn I had pulled out either. A migraine didn’t help either.

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ― C.S. Lewis

I’m taking my time and checking often now so I don’t have to take it apart again. Plus I moved to the table so the mandala did not lay on top of me because it is mighty toasty here. I could give in and put the AC on but I’m resisting. We’ve been shut up for so long I want to hear the birds sing, and even that crazy woodpecker who’s clearly not working for the government because I can see his accomplishments .:)

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” ― Aristotle

Have a great day!

Mandela Madness Part 9

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This has been a relaxing selection in the Mandala crochet journey with very simple stitches and an opportunity to make sure my stitches are exact. If your using only the video it doesn’t provide you a check process like the typed our version on the designer’s site does.  I have found the stitch count at the end of each row a godsend as the size grew.  Thankfully, I only had to adjust one section of the eight sides. 🙂 http://www.crystalsandcrochet.com/mandala-madness-part-9/

It is 57 inches in circumference now.  I worked with lavender which reminds me of my lovely lilacs blooming outside. I chose the teal oddly enough because I was wearing the same color shirt and I hadn’t used it in awhile so I worked with the teal. I do want to use each color six times throughout the mandala. I chose the vivid pink because my rose buds are just beginning to open. I hope the crazy wind and torrential rain we’re having today don’t knock them all off.

I looked ahead at section 10 Tami, you may want to as well before drawing your next Tarot card. Part 10 is a large section but only uses 2 colors one is the background and one is foreground, it makes a flower with one color and the other is the backing which really highlights the flower.

As I studied part 10 and tossed around different color choices I decided that checking out the next round would help me make an informative decision. Wow, there was a mandala done totally in black and white, it’s gorgeous. The creator is Ineke Mooijenkind, from Gouda in the Netherlands .

What caught my attention even more … directions to square the edges at the end to better fit a bed. I’m definitely doing that. So there goes, I only have 50 more rounds to go out the window. I don’t know how many rounds it will take yet.

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That’s Ineke lying on her masterpiece. I love how the black and white looks, I may do a second one now that I’ve seen the black and white together.

Writing Challenge Update

I managed to get 90 minutes in yesterday but not consecutively. I took a nap yesterday afternoon after hearing about my brother-in-law’s passing. Vic and I played cribbage over dinner and then I decided to log into Writing.Com and respond to the prompts I posted the night before in Blog City and BCoF. These are blogging groups that I manage on the site. In Blog City, I work with Joy, Megan and Norb, we each post prompts for the bloggers to respond to in their blogs. As leaders, we interact with them and the other bloggers encouraging conversation. IN BCoF, it is Neva and I and we also post prompts and interact with the bloggers. Between the two groups, there are 180 bloggers signed up but on the daily average, we have about 35 active bloggers each day. I responded to all the bloggers that wrote on my day in the two groups and wrote a blog entry myself.

Today, was day 2 of my turn for Blog City I’ve blogged and replied to my fellow bloggers and now I’m here putting this entry up. So far I’ve written 90 minutes and this entry isn’t done yet. 🙂  I enjoy blogging to different prompts because it is kind of like a warm up exercise for me.

Last night, I caught up on reading some of the different bloggers I follow on WordPress too. I encourage you to read Haunted by Wedding Dresses, it’s an interesting twist about voices in a woman’s head.

https://theresabarkerlabnotes.com/2017/05/12/haunted-by-wedding-dresses-part-5/

I learned a lot about monkeys and their connection in different cultures as well reading Ronel’s blog.

https://ronelthemythmaker.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/monkeys-in-mythology-and-folklore-folklorethursday/

I checked out the collection of  Printables on  Wulfie’s Essentials, she’s right there is nothing more frustrating then to see something advertised for free and then when you get there its another story.

Collection of Printable’s for All Crafters!

Timing is everything when I saw Tami’s Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake I was lying in bed and too dang lazy to get out of bed instead I dreamed a very non-caloric dream of chocolate dancing in my head. But I did leave a message asking what time is dinner and dessert Wednesday so we can drop in.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake Recipe

The problem with making all those tempting desserts in my home is there is only the two of us and we are dieting. ( Yes, Vic we are)  Desserts are dangerous when it comes to calories and are never done in one serving here.  Having a dessert at a restaurant does have its advantages, there are no leftovers to finish.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome Moms out there.

“Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes

Writing Challenge Continued

/ lyncrain / 2 Comments

The rough draft of the poem I shared several days ago about life in moments and another one about wildflowers I took with me to my writing critique group. They enjoyed the imagery but the feedback was the cadence was off in both. One of the authors Raz Steel suggested I merge my poems into paragraphs with punctuation and see what comes to mind with it in a different format. This is both poems together with punctuation.

  Life in a Snapshot

This morning, I saw the droplets of water on the glossy leaves and fragrant spring petals. The plants bowed in the breeze, joyful for their reprieve from Mother Nature’s exploits. The birds sang sweet melodies, and a squirrel chattered noisily. Each sure, they have the remedies for the making of a beautiful day.

I sat with my coffee cup to my right while I scribbled with my pencil on paper. I tried to keep my thoughts reined in, but I’m enchanted at the moment. My youngest kitten nudged my hand startling me out of my musing. I happily agreed to Macavity’s insistent demand.

Unable to focus, I asked Vic to come dance with me in the field of clover. Our toes tickled the sweet fragrances free. I entwined garlands of wild flowers for us to wear as the bumblebees happily buzzed from blossom to blossom. The celandine and berries add brilliant color to the spring canvas. The birds sang magical notes as we strolled hand in hand back home as the sun faded behind the treetops.

At our age, we cherish every minute in this revolving door called life.

Life in a Snapshot evolved further with Raz Steel ‘s help. He hates adverbs and redundancies and I’m guilty of using both. Needless to say, he jumped all over them and immediately brought them to my attention. I’m eternally grateful for his editing prowess.

What do you think of Life in a Snapshot now?

Droplets of water beaded on glossy leaves and spring petals this morning. The plants bowed in the breeze, joyful for their reprieve from Mother Nature’s exploits. Birds sang and squirrels chattered, each sure they had the remedy for rendering a beautiful day.

I sat with a coffee cup and scribbled with pencil on paper, my thoughts reined in, but enchanted, nonetheless. Macavity, my kitten, nudged my hand and startled me out of my musing, and I agreed to his insistent demand.

Unable to focus, I asked Vic to dance with me in the field of clover. I entwined garlands of daisies and lavender to wear, as the bumblebees buzzed from blossom to blossom. Our toes tickled the sweet fragrances free, and celandine and berries added brilliant color to the Spring canvas. Magic guided us home as we strolled hand in hand, and the sun faded behind the trees.

*************************************************************************************

My writing was derailed again. Unfortunately, it was for bad news.  My deceased husband’s aunt texted me to let me know my ex-brother-in-law Jimmy had passed away.  Wow, He’s the same age as me. Jimmy’s health had been complicated with diabetes and heart issues for some time now. I’ll miss him but I know he is in a better place.

RIP Jimmy Osborne.

angel

               Don’t Cry For Me © Deborah Garcia Gaitan

Don’t cry for me,
I will be okay.
Heaven is my home now,
and this is where I’ll stay.
Don’t cry for me,
I’m where I belong.
I want you to be happy
and try to stay strong.
Don’t cry for me,
It was just my time.
But I will see you someday
on the other side.
Don’t cry for me,
I am not alone.
The angels are with me
to welcome me home.
Don’t cry for me,
for I have no fear.
All my pain is gone,
and Jesus took my tears.
Don’t cry for me,
this is not the end.
I’ll be waiting here for you,
when we meet again.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/dont-cry-for-me

“I have come to know that it [death] is an important thing to keep in mind — not to complain or to make melancholy, but simply because only with the honest knowledge that one day I will die I can ever truly begin to live.”

—R.A. Salvatore, The Halfling’s Gem

I’m going to give a shameless plug too for my friend, fellow author Raz Steel. He has two published books available on Amazon. I’ve posted one link the other is easy to find.

Writing Challenge Day 2

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Yay, I accomplished 49 minutes and a poem not counting this blog entry.  🙂 I’m joining Teresa Barker and Ronel Janse van Vuuren on the productive writing challenge. Now, you’re probably thinking what’s so difficult about writing, you just do it. Easier said than done. There are so many other things that need to be done every day in a house with a messy Marvin husband and three moving hairballs. ( aka Purryl, Yeats, and Macavity, our four-legged family) The distractions are endless and I feel guilty letting everything sit while I stare at the page.  At least, I do.

A good friend said, “People go to work daily and when they come home they tackle the stuff that’s essential and get to the other stuff whenever. The problem with you is you’re not thinking of your writing as your job.  Or maybe writing isn’t to you? ”

Dang it, he’s right. 😦  I put my writing second to everything. That will be changing. 🙂

So this morning with every attention of writing for 90 minutes,  I sat for the allotted time and found myself getting lost in my thoughts before a poem came together for me. I briefly did get distracted by my surroundings and that stinker Macavity, who is mighty insistent but I did persevere.

My Life in Moments by Lyn Crain

Droplets of water on glossy leaves
and fragrant petals glisten brightly.
My plants joyful for their reprieves
from  Mother’s Natures antics 
savor these moist moments.

Birds singing sweet melodies
and squirrels chattering away.
Each sure, they have the remedies
for the making of a perfect day
create new musical moments.

Coffee cup sitting to my right
while my pencil scribbles on paper.
My thoughts wander as I write
and soon my images blur I’m
clearly lost in the moments.

My youngest kitten nudges my hand.
 He startles me out of my daydream.
 I happily agree to his insistent demand. 
His playful antics are a show stopper
highlighting our magical moments.

I discover something new to embrace
in life’s evolving door of mystery.
At my age, I cherish each place
that gives me the opportunity to
celebrate my life in the moments.

 

“When you are here and now, sitting totally not jumping ahead, the miracle has happened. To be in the moment is the miracle.”~Osho

“Forever is composed of nows.” ― Emily Dickinson

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” ― Maya Angelou

If you have the opportunity check out these dear ladies blogs and see how their productive writing is going.  Have a great day. 🙂

I’m off to the treadmill the other promise I made to myself to get back on track.

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/56405964/posts/6137

Interview with the Authors of the #HeroLost Anthology #MysteriesOfDeathAndLife

 

Mandela Madness Part 8 and life

/ lyncrain / 7 Comments

Round 56 I became so frustrated with the long double crochets that I tossed the mandala in a basket and left it for a few days. I finished the round with a few more curse words and went on to Round 57 which tidied up Round 56. It is now 45 inches around.

Beware, Tami, if you’re stitches are tight it will curl some. Helen Shrimpton did note that it will be wavy.  Mine is on one side but not so much on the other once I got my groove. And the good news is there are no special stitches in Round 9. Just lots of front or back post stitches.
And our work will be wobbly again in this section…
She said, “don’t worry, it’s all part of the grand design 🙂”

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I introduced lavender, purple and baby blue this round. Although in the camera lighting the purple looks like black. I was ready for new colors. My lilacs are blooming so I decided to give them a place in this journey, the sky was a lovely shade of blue without a cloud in it on the day I began that round. The deep purple represents the lovely flags on the irises. I love the spring time blooms.

I’ve been working on my short story Death and I. My short story is fascinating thus far because I have it from the woman’s point of view and from Thanatos point of view. The story has evolved into two stories, not one. I worked on it for 15 minutes today, Theresa. This writing to be more productive challenge will be an eye opener for me, it’s been quite a while sine I’ve sat 90 minutes straight without interruption. I know I need too. There are too many things distractions and my writing is suffering dearly. I don’t think I managed to get 5 hours out of the whole week. 😦   But, excuses are like assholes, we all have them.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.”
—Philip Roth

So, this morning I finished the baby hat I needed to get done for a friend of mine to go with the baby afghan I did back in March. I totally spaced the hat out. I saw her on Friday at the Cancer Recognition Luncheon and she asked if it was done. The afghan yes, the hat…oops. Needless to say, I whipped that hat up. I had put the blanket in the closet on the shelf because we had company in April visiting and out of sight out of mind.

Thank goodness, I’m not using baby pink in my Mandala, I am so over that color. I’ve done 3 baby blankets for new Mommas and of course, they were all girls. I’m not a fan of pink but that is the color they wanted. Need to keep the customers happy. 🙂

Friday, was a fun day I attended a luncheon with 38 other Cancer survivors, we were being honored by the local Teacher’s Union. Mastori’s, a local restaurant, catered the lunch and the food was excellent.

It was awesome to connect with other cancer survivors and to hear their stories. We’re beating the cancer odds more and more each year. Early detection is crucial, don’t ever neglect your self-exams.  You know your body better than anyone, talk to your doctor if anything feels wrong to you. It can be the difference between life and death.

I wore a dress, totally out of character for me. The funny part of the dress thing was I rubbed my leg and realized oh shit, totally forgot to shave my legs. Thank goodness, it had only been a few days since I had. 😦

I’m a jeans girl and shaving my legs isn’t a priority. to me.

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No worries, my health is fine. I’m a three-time cancer survivor and it’s been 10 years since my last round of cancer. 🙂

I’m simply sporting my summer do, I don’t like sticky hair when I’m working outside so I cut it right off.  I discovered after chemo how easy it is to shower and go and it’s become a summer routine. Though this year, I did decide to go really short. What can I say, hair today, hair tomorrow… it grows back very quickly so by July I’ll be back to needing gel and a straightener because of the unwanted curls.

Quote

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“In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself.”
~Anna Quindlen

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Let’s have coffee together

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Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening… I think I have everyone covered.

I’m on Round 7 of the Mandala Madness. Phew. Round 6 had some interesting quirks that hopefully, I won’t be repeating the same errors. No worries, it’s not with the pattern at all. It was totally my yarn choices. I chose my light turquoise yarn to do the shells in Round 39 which was a huge mistake because in Round 41 you are using the back loop of Round 39.  You’re probably thinking so… well the turquoise wasn’t a Caron or a Redheart yarn which hold up very well with more complicated stitches. The turquoise was a Bernina product and it was very disappointing in this case. It kept splitting apart and stretching which means I had to work slower and pick up a lower stitch behind it to help reinforce the back stitch.  😦

I decided after this frustrating round I would read ahead instead of simply following the video. Esther is great but I need to plan so I am not stressed with my work. It defeats the whole meditation process if you’re frustrated.

http://www.crystalsandcrochet.com

The designer’s website provided me with all the tools I needed to plan ahead. Wow, it’s not a lap size blanket as I originally thought to glance at the videos. It’s 7 feet, okay I’m working on a queen size bed project. I can do this.  It’s 111 rounds. I can do that too.

Then I got thinking how to best maximize my color usage. I decided on 18 colors that would give me the vibrancy I am looking for in the finished product. These colors are very prominent in nature and in my home. That’s even better. Eighteen colors means I will be repeating the colors 6 times if I want to have a color balance throughout the project. I can do this.

Since we last discussed colors introduced I added white to my mandala because I wanted innocence to be among my meditative journey. As I completed the white round and was moving on to the next round I remembered how quickly as a child I lost that innocence in my life. I was only nine when my father decided to steal my childhood from me.

 I saw her nine-year-old trusting eyes

trying to cope with her father’s lies.

Her cheeks streaked with silent tears

whenever he tossed back a few beers.

She felt the guilt inside her swell

her young body revolted with the smell.

Needless to say, my color change became abrupt in the next round from white to black. Just like in my life, innocence shattered so did the colors in my mandala.  Unfortunately, so did my peaceful crocheting experience.

I wrote in my journal and wrote 2 poems discussing the abuse I faced as a child. Overall, it became a productive writing day and helped me get back on track for my next color choice which is gold.

I chose gold because I know how important it is to strive every day to be your best. It’s often said that change is the only constant in life. Yet humans are evolutionarily predisposed to resist change because of the risk associated with it. I feel change is essential to our existence, granted there will be the moment of relapse as I had yesterday but it’s important to recognize that you can’t linger in the painful memory you must move on.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished. -Benjamin Franklin

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better. -Georg C. Lichtenberg

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi

Thank you for joining me on this journey.  Crochet on… Write on

 

Successful Brand Creating

/ lyncrain / 2 Comments

In writing, the primary requirement of an opening is that the first few lines plunge the reader into the story instantly. The reader is hooked with the writing. But is it enough to keep them coming back again and again as you build your brand, your writing career?

I found myself contemplating how I am going to market myself as an author again after my encounter with this young woman.  She swears it is more than selling a book. It is about selling ourselves to the reader. I tried to decide in my head how to approach the first few minutes with a stranger.

What should matter most in the first initial conversation I have with the new individual? Is it the few first lines spoke or the way I  present myself before speaking.  I’ve been told a strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for a successful introductory encounter.

What about once I get into the conversation?  How important are the first words uttered?  Should I focus on hooking them like I do in my writing with the first few lines? Like having a practiced opening dialogue in the back of my head or should I simply fly from the seat of my pants.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”– Albert Einstein  Great advice Mr. Einstein but how do I know the rules of the game when I’ve never marketed myself.

I’m very visual. I’m guilty of noticing the individual’s appearance like for instance is the person relaxed or tense. Did they make eye contact when approaching? Did the person extend his hand for a handshake? What kind of grip? Did it linger or not?

So I try very hard to match the social cues so we remain on equal footing. I always note something the person is wearing and specifically comment about it. I’m not really comfortable with small talks like the weather or the day itself so I tend to focus on the purpose of our meeting whether it be networking or social connections and go directly to the purpose of our getting together. “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. – Zig Ziglar   Thus far in life that has worked very well.

“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” – Harry F. Banks

But then my never ending mind went back and forth on… is the real hook in the introduction and the presentation or the conversation that follows. For me,  both are important but I can never decide what has more value in the long run. I feel it is important to make the encounter memorable and connectable for the future with the minimalist of effort and time. Time is priceless to me and I would rather spend my time in pursuit of my passions than being a social butterfly but I do need my book to sell.  I agree with Picasso that “Action is the foundational key to all success.”– Pablo Picasso

So as I was crocheting Round 33 and 34 on my Mandala I was trying to decide again how do I market myself better. I would love to hear your thoughts and how you approach marketing yourself.

 

http://www.lyncrainpoet.com

 

 

 

 

Interests Beyond Writing

/ lyncrain / 2 Comments

 

“Each person’s life is like a mandala – a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life.”– Pema Chodron

“Most mandalas have an intuitive, irrational character and, through their symbolical content, exert a retroactive influence on the unconscious. They therefore possess a “magical” significance, like icons, whose possible efficacy was never consciously felt by the patient.”~Carl Jung

 

Mandala (pronunciation mon- dah- lah) means “circle”.  A Mandala represents wholeness, a galactic diagram reminding us of our relation to infinity that extends beyond but also within our bodies and minds. Mandala’s appear to us in all aspects of life, the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. Our intimate circles of family, friends even community can be considered a Mandala.

Mandalas are circular designs symbolizing the notion that life is never ending. The symbolism behind the creation of a mandala may have significant meaning for many individuals whether they are Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Pagan or of any other religious orientation.  Most Mandalas are created by people to symbolize their journeys through life. Mandalas tell the story of where an individual has been.  In some cases, they will reveal the individual’s path in life.

Luckily for us, the internet has a wealth of Mandalas and their meanings.  I discovered many sites have mandalas ready for coloring as a free copy or download.  It is always best to select colors intuitively.  In reading about Mandalas because Tami’s latest project looked so beautiful, I discovered this information about what the colors represent.

 

RED for strength, high energy, and passion

PINK for love, intuition and the feminine

ORANGE for creativity, transformation, self-awareness and intuition

YELLOW for learning, wisdom, laughter and happiness

GREEN for physical healing, psychic ability, love of nature and caring

BLUE for emotional healing, inner peace, and meditation

PURPLE for all things spiritual

WHITE for mental focus

BLACK for mystery, deep thinking, and individuality

 

I decided to create my Mandala joining Tami in this exciting project. I love crocheting and find it soothing to do while I am thinking about different poems. It is National Poetry Month, and I am doing the 30-day challenge as well.  I never have idle hands or an idle mind.

I chose shades of orange for the first color of my Mandala because I was beginning a creative project. Yellow because crocheting brings me joy. I chose shades of green to reflect my love of nature and my surroundings. (The lighting in the house makes it look blue in the picture but they are definitely green. One is light and one is dark.) It was in the 70’s the last two days here in New Jersey. I chose red for my passion in life. (I had a great day writing, two poems and 900 words in my short story Death and I.)

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The instructions are very easy to follow along.

I hope you take a moment to check out Tami’s beautiful Mandala. She was my inspiration for creating this project. It’s fun doing projects with other people and buidling relationships along the way.

Crochet Mindful Mandala – Rows 30 thru 34